URGENT Action Needed! Migrant Died in Federal Custody

A Brazilian national, Edmar Alvez Araujo, died in federal custody after he couldn’t get access to mediction for his epilepsy. According the Boston Globe, Araujo was apprehended on Tuesday by the Woonsocket Police Department after a traffic stop. He was transferred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency due to an outstanding deportation order from 2002. ICE took custody of Araujo at 3 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the Rhode Island Hospital at 4:18 p.m.

Araujo’s sister, Irene, said she was turned away by the Woonsocket police when she tried to give him his medication. The MetroWest Daily got this quote Irene Araujo:

“Yesterday, I was wondering how I was going to tell my mother Edmar was going to be deported,” she said. “Now, I don’t know how I am going to tell her Edmar is dead.”

“The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition mourns the needless and tragic death of Edmar Alves Araujo. The death of this 34 year old in custody should never have happened. Our prayers go out to his family.”

“In this instance, enforcement officials, our public servants, failed to serve and protect not only the individual, but also our own standards of decency, when they allowed Edmar to suffer and die a preventable death.”

“Edmar Alves Araujo’s death while in ICE custody is shocking and outrageous. Unfortunately, this was not the first such death to occur under ICE custody. Edmar is the latest of 63 immigrants to die in administrative custody since 2004. This tragedy adds to the growing number of reports about abuses and mismanagement in ICE’s immigration detention system.”

“It wasn’t until the day after the death, that information became public about what happened. That the facts have been so slow in coming to light is indicative of the cloud of secrecy under which immigration enforcement operates today. Due process, fair treatment, and common human decency are often the first victims of unchecked arrests and imprisonment.”

“We demand a full and open investigation into the death of Edmar Alves Araujo. This death should never have happened. The immigration laws and enforcement officials that allow tragedies like this to keep happening exemplify just how removed the system is from our ideals as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of justice under law.”

This isn’t an isolated incident. The following is an incomplete list of other recent occurences:

1. Just today, the Associated Press is reporting that a pregnant woman died in a detention center in El Paso, TX.

2. The New York Times did a long piece on the the many deaths that have occured in ICE custody. I covered it here.

The most disturbing part of the Boston Globe article is the following:

Grenier said state and federal authorities will investigate the death, but she could not say which agencies would be involved. Officials from the Rhode Island State Police and the state attorney general’s office said yesterday that they were not investigating Araujo’s death.

UPDATE 2: I called the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office and they that there is no need to investigate this because Araujo died in federal custody. That being said it was the Woonsocket police that initially detained them and according to the Boston Globe it was the Woonsocket police that turned Araujo’s sister away when she tried to bring him his medication.

One small addition to the parade of horribles above: the U.N. was recently prohibited from entering an ICE detention camp. Pending litigation or not, that has to say something.

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In my limited experience, local police and ICE regularly team up to treat immigration detainees as if they were criminals or (in cases like Mr. Araujo’s) worse. (At least criminals are allowed immediate access to life-saving medical care.)

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This may sound more than a little attenuated, but I have to believe that this kind of tragedy is a natural consequence of our government openly adopting torture (or “stress positions” or “rough interrogations” or whatever they’re calling it now) as an acceptable means of dealing with uncharged detainees. Can this really be the country my great-grandparents immigrated to?

Seems like every time I accidentally flip past Fox News, somebody like you is complaining about those impatient illegals who can’t just “wait in line” like everyone else. But what if there’s no line to wait in?

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All it took for my great-grandfather to come over from Scotland was a U.S. citizen to vouch for him and a basic medical exam. You must know that it’s nowhere near as simple today. There are precious few paths to residency/citizenship, even for the most deserving.

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And yes, technically, overstaying a final order of removal is a crime. But unlawful presence in the United States, for which local and state police also regularly pick up aliens and turn them over to ICE, is not. Regardless, however: are you seriously suggesting that someone who overstays an order of deportation deserves to die? I can’t read that comment any other way.

Do you really believe that another human being deserves to DIE because of their immigration status? Really? Last time I checked we offer appropriate medical treatment to convicted murderers in MCI-Cedar Junction, but you think that a person accused of overstaying a visa deserves to die in custody? If one of your relatives were arrested for some minor offense and died in custody, somehow i doubt that you would say, “his demise was of his own making” because he was operating with a suspended license or whatever. But of course, someone like you is incapable of viewing a non-American as even being human, and therefore can’t imagine one of your own relatives being in this situation.

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I have an idea: why don’t you (a) try actually getting to know a few non-americans before you make ridiculous, hateful statements — it might help you to view them as something other than animals and (b) try to get a grasp on our current immigration law — it might help you to understand that there are virtually NO legal options for people to immigrate to the United States. People like you seem to believe that it’s still the good old days of Ellis Island when you hop on a boat, sign your name, and go forth to live the American dream. The reality is that our current laws are so restrictive that for 99.9% of the people who are desperate to come here, there is no legal option.

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I sincerely hope you’re just trying to be inflammatory; otherwise, I know of another site you might enjoy. It’s called freerepublic.com. Check it out. I’m sure they totally agree with you that people that overstay visas deserve to end up dead.

If he was obeying the law this would not have happened. We are a country of laws, and as unfortunate as this seems people MUST start taking personal responsibility. This story would be even more upsetting if I found out it was my tax dollars that paid for the wasted medication.

What about law enforcement? They don’t have to take responsibility for their wanton, reckless conduct that resulted in the death of another human being? Oh right, I forgot, personal responsibility only applies to those heinous “criminals”- illegal immigrants. Try leaving the country every now and then. It might give you some perspective on the rest of the world. Maybe one day you’d even have some compassion for other inhabitants of the planet who happen not to have been born in the United States.

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If you read my post again you will see nothing from me saying law enforcement did a good thing here. My point is if you do something illegal you know you?re taking a risk, he took the risk, ignored the law more than once. Then he ended up dead, and you want to blame everyone but the person who was ultimately responsible. If he did NOT break the law, he would not have died period! You obviously know nothing of personal responsibility.

If you read my post again you will see nothing from me saying law enforcement did a good thing here. My point is if you do something illegal you know you?re taking a risk, he took the risk, ignored the law more than once. Then he ended up dead, and you want to blame everyone but the person who was ultimately responsible. If he did NOT break the law, he would not have died period! You obviously know nothing of personal responsibility.

Telling me that I know nothing about personal responsibility is a bit absurd. I’ve spent virtually my entire career in law enforcement, and I’m well aware of the need to hold individuals responsible for their actions. Regardless, this is a red herring in this case. You can always say that had a person done one thing or another differently, they would not have ended up dead. What I’m curious about is whether you would have the same reaction had the individual who died in custody had been a white American who had been arrested for some minor offense rather than a Brazilian taken into custody on a federal immigration warrant. If, for example, the individual in question had been arrested for drinking in public or taken into custody for having an expired registration, would you blame him for the officers’ negligence in denying him access to essential medical care? Or what if the individual (like the deceased in this case) had been taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court? Would you blame them when they ended up dead?

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This sort of blame the victim mentality does nothing to address the real issue- which is the callousness and disregard for human life that is evidenced by these officers’ treatment of the deceased.

Your comment is nonsense, I guess I have to believe everyone in law enforcement is an expert in personal responsibility. Then you go on to say you hold other people accountable, that’s personal responsibility! In fact according to the courts, law enforcement blames the wrong person far too frequently. Exactly what you?re doing now. I might as well throw in the towel now, I guess I have no control over my life, it?s all up to someone else. It’s truly sad my tax dollars probably pay your salary. Just what we need, more government waste.

The U.S. is a country of laws but it is also a country of justice. You truly are a cold soul if you would prefer not to spend money on something that would have saved someone’s life.

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Either way all of these are mute points. Everyone can agree that we need to tackle the problems associated with migration at it’s root. Conservatives and Progressives both acknowledge the fact that we have to start giving these people a reason to stay in their own countries.

It doesn’t make sense to make the legal/illegal argument for prior generations because there wasn’t any real regulation. Before you could walk back and forth across the U.S. border without any real trouble, and the great grandparents of U.S. citizens didn’t have to check in to get into the United States. We need to move from questions of legality to questions of justice. Was what was done to this man just? The answer is no. Even if he was a criminal there is no reason that he shouldn’t have been denied access to medication. Last time I checked a deportation order was not equal to the death penalty.

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raj

2020 years ago

ICE acted stupidly.

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But, the unfortunate fact is that the guy is dead. What is the “urgency” (referencing the title of the post)? Unless a miracle occurs, he’s going to stay dead, no matter how quickly anyone acts.

We must ban the use of tear gas by law enforcement. Tear gas is an indiscriminate weapon that was banned in warfare nearly 100 years ago. It is insane that we allow police to use it against protestors today.